Storage Costs

[Puddletown]

Can anyone tell me roughly how much a storage unit costs in SW London?

It depends enormously on the size, but ime you’ll get the best value the further out you go,
for example Kingston.

but don't go too far from where you are or you will spend all your time tooing and froing.

we recently shoved most of our stuff into storage pre and post move, three months, and dh did look at something in the neares city which was a fair bit cheaper than the ones in town, but the time and fuel cost would have been a royal pita

My husband works in storage. Each company does things differently. You will need to phone them for a quote. They will ask u what you want to store and they will know the best size for u.
Also. Please shop around. Some will do a price match or lower if u have a price on paper.
Some also do a months free. Though make sure u check the price after that as it will jump.

Also. Check how ur paying. Some do monthly. And some do four weekly and u could end up paying more.

Thank you - all really helpful advice

I have a 70sq ft unit sw London costs 150/month.

Impossible to advise you, better to ask for quotes. I fill containers with furniture and household goods so I can offer the following advice.

Throw anything away that is not 100% essential.
Throw anything away that will cost you more to store than replace.

I know those 2 sound harsh but storage costs are crazy and my business can save thousands if I stick to those rules.

Finally, use a professional packer. What you pay someone, 1 time for a few hours will be recovered many times over from your monthly savings. I have seen 200 square foot units full of what I would squeeze into a 50 square foot unit.

Finally, do you know anyone with an under utilized garage? Or even a spare room?

We paid about 500/mth for 250sqft unit a couple of years ago. Also beware that some are notorious for increasing prices regularly and without justification. Just allow for that in your budgeting

I've had storage for some time and now getting it emptied , costs over time are considerable , work out if it's really stuff worth storing

Insure contents via a specialist self-storage insurance company; the storage company's insurance will be double or treble if they provide the insurance (many will insist you are insured).

Decide what you really need to store; downsize your possessions to those you really want to keep / small & high value / sentimental value. The bigger the unit, the higher the cost (and the price might get hiked a fair bit if you keep the unit for a while), so you can end up paying more to store some things than they are worth, especially if you keep stuff stored for a while.

We were paying £300 a month for storage for our 2 bed flat contents near Brixton a year or so ago - we got I think one month rent free and then had to pay that.

Its good to shop around - we were quoted prices of £300-600 and whilst the £600 a month option was better lit and easier to access nothing beats the price. You will pay more if you need 24hr access and things like that. As well as the big yellow storage company stores etc its worth contacting removal companies as many can also offer storage although this cannot be accessed as easily as the storage company units.

As others have said get rid of any furniture that will be awkward - big things like sofas, book cases etc that will be hard to store. Also use lots of small boxes rather than big ones - they are far easier to stack and carry!